Vista SP1 Release Candidate Hits Testers

It’s Friday afternoon so what better way to close off my weekday news coverage with a bit of hope (alright, a ”lot” of hope)…

Despite seemingly three service packs, 10 generations of graphics card drivers and two years away from optimum operation Microsoft’s problem child (also known as Windows Vista *shudder*) gets a much needed shot in the arm today after the first SP1 Release Candidate went out to testers.

As is the norm in these situations, an ‘RC’ signals that the company has largely finished adding features/fixes/prayer and is now in the process of ironing out glitches and compatibility issues. Even more encouraging, early reports say that SP1 RC1 has been well received by Microsoft’s tester community with improved laptop battery life, faster networking and better wake up from standby times the most notable comments.

Of course, before we all get too excited and proclaim this ugly duckling a swan remember that SP1 will be largely under the bonnet tweaks and fixes meaning that 12 months down the line what consumers will be getting is essentially the OS we all should have received in January. ‘Tis the Microsoft way.

To stave off the emails here and now: would I switch to Vista following SP1? Well, as it remains the ”only” new OS I have ever uninstalled I’ll be waiting for Service Pack 2…